the president said he is modestly optimistic about a fiscal cliff deal getting done before new year's eve. >> clayton: they all said the same thing. presidential meeting with the leaders yesterday. harry reid. >> juliet: vice president showed up. >> clayton: they must have been all on the same table hey whether we lee this table we will say modestly optimistic. listen to senator mitch mcconnell who may be the linchpin of this whole thing. he said i will take the ball and run with it in the senate. get a deal done. listen to the senator. >> we had a good meeting at the white house. we are engaged in discussions the majority leader and myself and the white house in the hopes that we can come forward sunday and have a recommendation that i can make to my conference and the majority leader can make to his conference. we will be working hard to see if we can get there in the next 24 hours. so i'm hopeful and optimistic. >> charles krauthammer calling him a master negotiator. saying if it were left up to him he could solve the syrian civil war in a weekend. >> dave: he can get it done but t